Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerJerry Hairston, Jr., playing in place of Johnny Damon, who got the night off, accepts congratulations after his fourth-inning home run.

One night later, all was right in the Yankees' world. Andy Pettitte threw seven strong innings and the Yankee offense put up 10 hits and nine runs to even their three-game series with the Texas Rangers, winning, 9-2.

Jorge Posada's three-run home run in the second inning and Jerry Hairston, Jr.'s solo shot in the fourth gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead that would never really be threatened as the Yanks improved to 79-47. The series concludes with a 1 p.m. game on Thursday.

Just the facts:
-- Pettitte escaped a jam in the first inning when Alex Rodriguez' error, a single by Josh Hamilton and walk to Nelson Cruz loaded the bases with one out. Pettitte got out unscathed when he got Ivan Rodriguez to ground into an inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play. Then, in the second inning, Posada hit a three-run homer to put the Yankees ahead, 3-0.

-- Hairston, who was doubled off second base for the final out in Tuesday's loss, got the start in left field in place of Johnny Damon and Hairston made the most of his opportunity. He walked his first time up, hit a solo homer to make it 4-0 in the fourth inning, and walked again in the seventh and finished 1-for-2 on the night with two walks and two runs scored. Pettitte allowed an RBI double to David Murphy in the fifth and a solo homer to Murphy in the seventh to pull the Rangers within 4-2. But the Yanks loaded the bases with no one out against a tiring Derek Holland in the bottom of the seventh and scored five runs to break it open. Derek Jeter had a bases-loaded single of reliever Jason Jennings to score two runs, Nick Swisher had an RBI double and Mark Teixeira had a two-run single off the right field wall to score the final two.

-- Pettitte, who allowed seven runs (five earned in his last start, the 20-11 win at Boston Friday) rebounded with a stellar effort, allowing just two runs in seven innings on five hits, with three walks. He struck out seven. The home run he allowed to David Murphy in the seventh inning was the first home run he's allowed in 49 2/3 innings.

The big picture:
-- Posada left the game in the top of the eighth inning when a fastball from Brian Bruney caught him on the ring finger of his catching hand. Posada said the ball hit the same spot on the finger that had been sore from a previous incident. Jose Molina, who came out of the bullpen to replace him, was scheduled to catch Thursday anyway, because of the day game-after-night game thing. Posada said the last time this happened a few weeks ago, he missed one game before returning to the lineup. Asked if he might sit out multiple games to give the finger a chance to heal, Posada dismissed the thought, saying the finger won't get better until after the season, no matter what he does.

-- Alex Rodriguez also suffered an injury, when he fouled a ball off his left foot in the seventh inning. But he waved Girardi away when he came out to check on him and he ran to first base fine on his ensuing double play grounder, according to Girardi. He came out of the game after that at-bat, but Girardi said that was a function of the score, and not because he was injured.

-- The lead in the AL East remains at six games over the Red Sox, after Boston beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2, on a bottom-of-the-ninth walkoff homer by David Ortiz. The lead is comfortable enough that Girardi can rest his players one (or two) at a time the rest of the way. But it's not so big that they can completely ignore the fact that Boston doesn't appear ready to simply fade away completely.

From the clubhouse:
"He's important. We missed him last year, we missed him a lot. See what he does tonight? Blocks a ton of baseballs, three-run home run early, to give us a lead - he means a lot. And that's why we've tried to be really smart with him, all year long. And we'll continue to do that.'' -- Girardi on how important Posada is to the lineup and the clubhouse for the Yankees.

"I was sitting at home today, watching the Little League World Series, and you see the scroll pass the bottom of the screen there. It's cool. To tie Lefty Gomez, one of the all-time great ones, and I guess I'm thankful. I feel very blessed to be able to stay healthy, and play on a great team, obviously, and have great guys who come in, obviously Mariano can come in and close games out for me - I just feel very fortunate.'' -- Pettitte, on picking up his 189th win as a Yankee, which tied him for third place in team history with Lefty Gomez. Whitey Ford (236) and Red Ruffing (231) are the only two ahead of him.

"It's the first time in my career - I'm approaching 10 years now, getting into September, I've got a chance to, not only get in the playoffs, but do something special. And that's something that this team stresses. We just don't want to get in. We want to win the World Series. We feel we have the talent here and hopefully things'll work out.'' -- Hairston, on how much he appreciates playing for the Yankees, even as a bench player.